Winners and finalists in 15 journalism categories were announced Monday afternoon.

Dallas Morning News Photographer Tom Fox reacts after being announced as a finalist for The Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography on Monday, May 4, 2020 in Dallas.(Ryan Michalesko / Staff Photographer)

Winners and finalists in 15 journalism categories were announced Monday afternoon. The prizes recognize excellence in newspaper, magazine and online reporting, photography, commentary and criticism.

“Tom’s chilling main photo gives us a look at the mass shooter as we’ve never seen him,” said Mike Wilson, editor of The News. “To tell the story, Tom drew on journalistic instincts honed over decades. We’re grateful for Tom’s work, for this recognition, and most of all for his safety.”

When a gunman clad in a mask and combat gear opened fire with an assault weapon outside the Earle Cabell Federal Building on June 17, Fox was standing near the doors for a routine assignment. He heard gunshots, then saw a man coming around the corner of the building.

“So I pulled up my long lens and saw someone who I realized was the shooter,” he said. “And I think, ‘Oh my God.’ I squeezed off a few frames as he picked something up — a clip, I think — and then I turned and ran.”

Fox later followed law-enforcement officers into a nearby parking lot, where the gunman lay after he was shot.

The Pulitzer board noted that Fox’s work was “photographed at great personal risk.”

Fox shared in The News staff’s 2006 breaking news photography Pulitzer for images of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. His wife, Laurie, and daughter, Avery, were with him at The News’ downtown newsroom to watch Monday’s announcement.

The staff of Reuters won the breaking news photography Pulitzer for their images of Hong Kong as citizens protested the influence of the Chinese government. Dieu Nalio Chery and Rebecca Blackwell of The Associated Press also were named finalists for their photographs of human-rights abuses and other horrors during unrest in Haiti.

The News has won nine Pulitzers, the most recent in 2010 for its editorial writing on social and economic divisions between northern and southern Dallas.

Following are the 2020 Pulitzer Prize winners in journalism:

Public Service

The Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica won the Pulitzer Prize in public service for illuminating the sparse policing of many Alaskan villages.

Breaking News Reporting

The staff of The Courier-Journal of Louisville, Ky., took the breaking news reporting award for quickly unpacking racial disparities and other issues in a spate of governor’s pardons.

Investigative Reporting

Brian M. Rosenthal of The New York Times won the investigative reporting prize for an expose of predatory lending in the New York City taxi industry.

Explanatory Reporting

The staff of The Washington Post was awarded the prize in explanatory reporting for a series about the effects of climate change on the planet.

Local Reporting

The staff of The Baltimore Sun won in local reporting for coverage of the undisclosed financial connection between the city’s mayor and a hospital system she oversaw.

National Reporting

Dominic Gates, Steve Miletich, Mike Baker and Lewis Kamb of The Seattle Times were named winners for stories that revealed flaws in Boeing’s 737 MAX. Also named winners were T. Christian Miller, Megan Rose and Robert Faturechi of ProPublica for their investigation into a series of deadly naval accidents.

International Reporting

The staff of The New York Times was awarded the international reporting prize for stories about Vladimir Putin’s regime.

Feature Writing

Ben Taub of The New Yorker won for his reporting on a man who was kidnapped, tortured and held at Guantánamo Bay for more than a decade.

Commentary

The Pulitzer Prize board awarded its prize for commentary to Nikole Hannah-Jones of The New York Times for an essay she wrote for the 1619 Project, which marked the 400th anniversary of the first enslaved Africans being brought to what became the United States of America.

Criticism

Christopher Knight of the Los Angeles Times won for his critique of a plan to overhaul the L.A. County Museum of Art.

Editorial Writing

Jeffery Gerritt of the Palestine (Texas) Herald Press was named a winner for his editorials on the deaths of inmates at a county jail before they had faced trial.

Editorial Cartooning

Barry Blitt of The New Yorker was awarded the editorial cartooning prize for his work skewering the Trump White House.

Breaking News Photography

The staff of Reuters won the breaking news photography Pulitzer for their images of Hong Kong as citizens protested the influence of the Chinese government.

Feature Photography

Channi Anand, Mukhtar Khan and Dar Yasin of The Associated Press won a Pulitzer in feature photography for images made during India’s clampdown on Kashmir, where a sweeping curfew and shutdowns of phone and internet service added to the challenges of showing the world what was happening in the region of 7 million people.

Audio Reporting

A first-ever award for audio reporting went to the staff of This American Life, Molly O’Toole of the Los Angeles Times and Emily Green of Vice News for “The Out Crowd,” an examination of the Trump administration’s “remain in Mexico” immigration policy.

Special Citation

The board of the Pulitzer Prizes also issued a special citation Monday to Ida B. Wells, the trail-blazing black investigative journalist. The board said the citation comes with a bequest of at least $50,000 in support of Wells’ mission, with recipients to be announced.

In honoring her during the prize announcements, the board noted “her outstanding and courageous reporting on the horrific and vicious violence against African-Americans during the era of lynching.”

Breaking news photography: the newspaper's photo staff, for its vivid images of the chaos and pain after Hurricane Katrina engulfed New Orleans

2004

Breaking news photography: David Leeson and Cheryl Diaz Meyer, for their eloquent photographs depicting both the violence and the poignancy of the war with Iraq

1994

International reporting: a News team, for its series examining the epidemic of violence against women in many nations

1993

Spot news photography: Ken Geiger and William Snyder, for their dramatic photographs of the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona

1992

Investigative reporting: Lorraine Adams and Dan Malone, for reporting that charged Texas police with extensive misconduct and abuses of power

1991

Feature photography: William Snyder, for his photographs of ill and orphaned children living in subhuman conditions in Romania

1989

Explanatory journalism: David Hanners, William Snyder and Karen Blessen, for their special report on a 1985 airplane crash, the follow-up investigation and the implications for air safety

1986

National reporting: Craig Flournoy and George Rodrigue, for their investigation into subsidized housing in East Texas, which uncovered patterns of racial discrimination and segregation in public housing across the United States and led to significant reforms.

Tom Steele, Breaking News Producer. Tom has covered breaking news for The Dallas Morning News since 2016. He has worked in a number of other capacities for The News since 2007, and he was previously a copy editor at The Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville, Fla. He has degrees in journalism and economics from Lehigh University.